


Taking Liberties

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Backstory, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Sometimes you have to fill in the gaps of history for yourself.





	Taking Liberties

**Author's Note:**

> For prompt fill 86: Fanfic. Adi and I had some fun with this one, seeing as she’s the only muse I could see doing something like this.

 

“So,” Adela began as she plunked down next to Sagani on her log perch away from the campfire, “how much of what you told Kana about Naasitaq was actually hokum?”

Sagani laughed. “Hardly any. Most of what he asked, I knew. There may be a few fudged details in there, but for the most part it’s the Hound’s own truth.”

“Alright, good.” Adela played with one of her rings. “‘Cause I think he’s serious about writing it all down and making a book, and if he _does_ I want it to be right.”

This earned a skeptical look from the dwarf. “C’mon, Adi, you’re a _scholar_. You should know better than most that people rarely pass down history and cultural stuff _completely_ correct.”

“Yeah, but that’s just more reason we should do our best to get it right when we can,” Adela said with a shrug. “Keep that to a minimum.”

Sagani raised an eyebrow, hands going still halfway through repairing her armor. “Are you tellin’ me that _you_ , with your love of details and thirst to know _everything_ , have never made somethin’ up to fill a gap?”

“Not that I’ve written down and presented as fact.” It was technically true.

Unfortunately for her, Sagani was uncannily perceptive about technicalities. She narrowed her eyes. “ _Adi._ ”

“Well,” Adela tugged on her necklace as heat rose in her cheeks. “There was a theory I was pretty attached to in school...”

“Adi.” Gods, she had a good Mom Voice. Which made sense.

Adela huffed at her bangs, which settled even more lopsided than they’d been originally. “Alright, alright. Auroch’s shadow, did your kids manage to keep _anything_ secret from you?”

That earned a laugh as Sagani resumed patching the slashed hide armor. “Not much. Now spill, Watcher. This sounds like a good story.”

Adela glanced toward the others, all still busy setting camp or preparing food.  “Sure, why not. We have the time...”

~<><><>~

It was hard waiting for class to be over today, which was a first. Normally, Adela never wanted it to end. But today she had a question for Master Izel, and didn’t want to bog down the lesson for everyone else.

And so she took her time gathering her things after the teacher had ended class and given them their home assignments; carefully stacking books before sliding them into her satchel, repeating the process with her loose pages of notes. Finally, the other students had all left the room and she could ask her question without holding up anyone but her teacher.

“Master Izel?” she started as she approached his desk.

“Yes, Adela?” The grey-streaked orlan peered over his spectacles at her with a smile. He probably knew she had a question even before she started dawdling. She asked a _lot_ , after all.

Adela rocked up on her toes, playing with the strap of her satchel. “That explorer you talked about yesterday, from the Vailian Republics, you never said what happened to her in the end.”

“Ilhana Guiserre?” Master Izel ran a hand over his hair with a wry smile. “That’s because no one knows what happened to her in the end.”

“Well, _why not_?” Adela gestured broadly to emphasize her point. “She was one of the foremost traders and explorers from the Republics’ _founding_ , she discovered safer routes to Aedyr _**and**_ the Deadfire; how did they not _pay attention_ to what happened to her?!”

He chuckled, toying with an apple one of the other students had left on his desk as they passed. “The thing with being an explorer, Adela, is no one much cares unless you find something _exciting._ That’s why she briefly retired after her attempt to find Ukaizo; she came up empty handed on a quest that cost every pand she had, and no one found her a ‘worthwhile investment’ for quite some time.”

“I care!” Adela protested. “Everything’s important, because everything tells us something about the past or other kith, or both, and I just can’t believe the last mention of Captain Guiserre, Ilhana the Bold, is a footnote that her ‘retirement’ only lasted three years. It’s ridiculous.”

Master Izel smiled and reached over to pat her shoulder comfortingly. “A great many scholars share your frustration, believe me. Myself included, actually. But it remains that we don’t know. There are no answers, her fate is a mystery.”

That rankled, but it was clear Master Izel had no more to share, sympathetic as he was to her curiosity. So Adela headed home, but her desire for answers lingered, a near-maddening distraction as she did the rest of her readings and assignments. Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer and started filling her free time with a much closer reading of anything she could find on Ilhana Guiserre. There wasn’t really anything to find that she hadn’t known already, which was far from satisfying.

Her solution was perhaps unorthodox, but in the end, _very_ satisfying: she wrote her own ending.

It wasn’t proven truth, and she knew it. And she may have waxed poetic about these potential adventures, rather than dwell on the gritty side of them. But it was _plausible_ , and after a week of dead ends and the book equivalent of shrugging, it was _something_.  Pulling from from what she knew of the woman and her history, Adela constructed her best guess at both what had pulled Guiserre from her retirement and her ultimate fate. She was so happy with her work--and with herself--that she showed her mother once it was done.

“Tell me what you think, Mama?” she asked hopefully. She was confident in her research and conclusions, but Mama had been a scholar even longer than she’d been alive. If there were holed to be poked, she would poke them, but gently.

“Is this an assignment for Master Izel?” Mama slid her spectacles down with one hand as she accepted the dog-eared papers with the other.

“No, I did it for fun,” Adela said, twirling an escaped lock of hair around her finger.

“I’ve seen you working on this for three days, dove.” Mama skimmed part of the first page. “It’s at least as well-written as half your school assignments.”

“Uh-huh.” Adela tugged the lock of hair. “I wanted an answer and none of my books had one. So I figured out what I think makes the most sense, and I just want you to check my reasoning.”

Mama smiled warmly and nodded. “Of course, darling. I don’t have any pressing studies right now, so I’ll dive right in and let you know what I think after dinner, hmm?”

“Sounds good. Thank you, Mama!” Adela gave her a slightly awkward sideways hug and skipped off to read a book. Mama would be honest with her, kind but fair, so she could go enjoy something else until the time came. Hovering wouldn’t change anything.

~<><><>~

“So... you wrote an ending to the life of your favorite explorer because nobody knew what happened to her?” Sagani said with an almost incredulous laugh.

“You know I hate unfinished stories,” Adela defended. “And I may have taken a few liberties, but I never claimed it as _fact_ , just a theory on what happened to her. Also, I was fourteen, so, y’know, maybe that was how my rebellious phase manifested; not accepting widespread scholarly ignorance about an important historical figure-what?”

Sagani shook her head, still grinning. “Nothin’. What did your mom think of your, uh, theory?”

“Oh, she loved it.” Adela’s face warmed and she tugged on her necklace. “Didn’t find any flaws, and was, um, so impressed by the time and research I put into something I just did for fun, she mentioned it to Master Izel in passing during my review at the end of the school year.”

“What’d he think?” Sagani set aside the mended armor and flicked some jerky to Itumaak. “Since it was something that bothered him, too.”

“His interest was piqued and he asked if he could read it. He was a great teacher, who I admired and respected, so I made him a copy. He, uh,” her face went even warmer; positive this would sound like bragging(even more than the rest had), “he was so impressed he sent it to a Vailian academy, presenting it as a student’s essay on ‘the theoretical fate of Captain Ilhana Guiserre’. I... may have panicked a little when he told me. I wrote it more like a tale than a formal essay--it was for fun, after all--and was sure all they’d do was laugh. But Master Izel told me the format added charm more than damaging credibility, that it would be fine.” Adela dug the toe of her boot into the dirt. “He was right.”

Sagani’s eyebrows both rose. “Really?”

“Yeah.” She dragged her foot in an arc. “That was the Selona academy that asked me to come study for a year.”

“The one you turned down ‘cause your brothers kept getting sick.”

“Yes, that one.”

“You must’ve been a good writer,” Sagani teased.

Adela laughed. “Or maybe they just liked my ideas. Master Izel _did_ say my frustration at the lack of detail available was a common sentiment.”

“Still, you impressed them somehow.” Sagani shrugged. “Thanks for sharing the story.”

“You’re welcome. It’s not one I like to bring up myself, ‘cause it sounds like I’m bragging, but you asked, so...”

“Just acknowledging your strengths isn’t braggin’, Adi,” Sagani said. Both of them cocked an ear at Kana hollering dinner was ready. “It’s all in your attitude. You’re so nice it’s easy to tell you’re not tryin’ to brag.”

“Reassuring.” Adela smiled as they stood and went to join the others.

“And, Adi, one thing,” Sagani grinned. “I’m still gonna fudge the occasional detail for Kana.”

Adela couldn’t resist a giggle. “As long as it’s just occasional.”

After all, everyone took liberties once in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. Yes, Adi got invited to the Selona Academy off what was basically a piece of very well written, very well researched, plausible historical fanfic. (Bc I do what I want, and hey, Dante’s Inferno is basically fanfic and that’s considered a classic. :P)
> 
> In writing this, I’ve decided Adi renames her ship _Ilhana_ in Deadfire. Now I need to go back through her Deadfire-era fics and change that when necessary.


End file.
